The demon-revealing formation could only be created by talisman array masters. To become a talisman array master requires exceptional spiritual power and talent. This had nothing to do with cultivation level, but with innate talent. There were very few talisman array masters on the Duzhou continent who could create demon-revealing formations.

“Fellow Cultivator Gu,” Nie Xinghong said in surprise, “when did you learn to create demon-revealing formations?”

“My master-uncle is naturally different from you cultivators with inferior cultivation and no talent. This demon-revealing formation took him all of last night to complete,” Mendong said with a face full of pride.

“But Master-Uncle, why did you set up a demon-revealing formation here?” Tian Fangfang looked at Gu Baiying. “Are there demons among us?”

Gu Baiying smiled slightly and said indifferently, “Demon races can use secret methods to hide their demon aura, but they cannot hide their demon cores. As long as a demon race enters the demon-revealing formation, they will immediately reveal their true form. If they don’t reveal their true form, they cannot pass through this formation.” He stared into Rong Yu’s eyes and slightly curved his lips. “Why don’t you come up, Rong Yu?”

Rong Yu didn’t move at all.

One step on the staircase, just a short distance, but now it seemed like there was an insurmountable chasm that could never be crossed.

This cultivator, who had always been humble, weak, and cautious, didn’t speak. He stared at Gu Baiying, and after a moment, his expression became strange.

Rong Yu tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing an odd smile. He asked Gu Baiying, “When did you start suspecting?”

“Very early, from the first time I saw you.”

This answer surprised Rong Yu somewhat.

“You were indeed rather strange,” Zanxing stood beside Gu Baiying and petted Mimi in her arms. “The first time I saw you, Mimi pounced on you and seemed to like you.”

“You suspect me because the Yinlang Shi was giving you warnings?”

“Not really,” Zanxing smiled. “In fact, until now, Mimi shows absolutely no trace of being a Yinlang Shi and is more like an ordinary pig… cat. And my cat doesn’t often get close to people.”

The various master-uncles and senior masters on Gufeng Mountain usually had to use spiritual fruits as bribes when they wanted to pet the cat. Tian Fangfang had been a free cat servant for a long time, but Mimi still wasn’t close to him. Yet with this stranger of a cultivator, from their very first meeting, Mimi kept trying to burrow into him.

“I believe it wasn’t giving me warnings, but simply liked the scent on your body.”

Rong Yu narrowed his eyes. “Scent?”

“If you’re a merman from the sea, perhaps you could be considered half-fish. Cats like seafood—this is very normal.”

Rong Yu’s complexion instantly became ugly. Zanxing’s explanation was truly insulting to his dignity as a merman.

“Don’t be angry,” Zanxing saw his face instantly turn cold, and tried to remedy the situation. “I think you don’t like Mimi either, so every time it pounced on you, your expression was very strained. This has nothing to do with like or dislike, but is the instinct between natural enemies.”

“Just based on this?” Rong Yu sneered. “I didn’t expect the sect people of the cultivation world to catch demons so casually.”

“It’s not just this,” Zanxing said. “There’s also how you always wear loose, flowing robes, covering yourself completely from head to toe, with your sleeves never revealing even a bit. It’s because you perhaps still have incompletely shed demonic features hidden on your body. Also, you don’t sweat. Li’er Kingdom is so hot, yet you’re fresh and clean every day, because you’re not human to begin with.”

Rong Yu said, “This is simply absurd.”

Gu Baiying seemed to finally tire of Zanxing’s rambling explanations. He glanced at her and took over: “I first saw you at the gambling den, where gambling insects had parasitized your senior brother. Gambling insects have weak demonic power and cannot directly harm people—they can only parasitize human bodies to confuse the host’s mind. So, gambling insects select targets who must be those with low cultivation and weak willpower. I heard that Liuli Sect sent you and your senior brother this time, and your senior brother’s cultivation is much higher than yours. It makes no sense for the gambling insect to abandon you and choose your senior brother as host.”

“Maybe Tan Tianxin manipulated things,” Rong Yu said coldly. “If he wanted to eliminate future opponents, naturally, he’d choose to eliminate the more threatening one first.”

Tan Tianxin on the side became furious upon hearing this and shouted, “I told you, I didn’t do such a thing!”

“That is indeed possible, so I didn’t think much of it that day,” Gu Baiying said in calm. “But Yang Zanxing’s Panhua Stick was giving warnings.”

“The Panhua Stick expels evil and purifies the heart, but a single gambling insect wouldn’t cause the stick to make such a commotion. At first, I thought it was a warning about the gambling insect, but later I realized what it was trying to warn us about was you.”

“These are all just your speculations,” Rong Yu mocked. “They only sound ridiculous.”

“True, none of this counts as evidence,” Gu Baiying’s gaze fell on his face, and he suddenly smiled brilliantly. “So last night at the victory banquet, I specifically went to look at your senior brother’s room.”

“That senior brother of yours isn’t bedridden because he was severely beaten—he’s unconscious because he’s being controlled. I guess the reason you didn’t kill him is because once he died and his life token shattered, the elders in the sect would immediately discover something amiss and rush here, exposing your lies. Even this body,” Gu Baiying looked him up and down, “you didn’t completely kill him either. You left him a thread of soul and occupied his body, which is why you can completely restrain your demon aura and make it impossible for people to track you.”

The moon rose, hanging above the white jade palace like a beautiful painting, cold and ethereally lovely.

Rong Yu slowly began to smile.

He said, “It seems the cultivation world isn’t full of fools.”

“Wait, what does this mean?” a cultivator on the constellation platform asked. “He’s a demon? Rong Yu is a demon!”

“Rong Yu isn’t a demon,” Putao looked at the person on the stairs and murmured. “He’s been possessed by a demon. A demon race has infiltrated our midst.”

Nie Xinghong closed the folding fan in his hand, his gaze fixed tightly on Rong Yu. “Were you the one who killed those young women in the city?”

The robed cultivator elegantly bowed. “Of course.”

“How can this be?” The sovereign staggered back two steps. “Wasn’t the harmful demon the Bixi spirit?”

“Bixi spirit?” Rong Yu seemed to have heard an amusing joke and burst into loud laughter. “How could it be a Bixi spirit? Oh, right, I almost forgot—humans are all the same. When they can’t find the real culprit, they casually find a scapegoat to bear the blame. It was like this forty years ago, and it’s like this forty years later!”

“Forty years ago…” Princess Lizhu stepped forward and demanded, “Who exactly are you?”

“Who am I?” Rong Yu slowly asked in return, then suddenly leaped up, flying into the air. The night wind billowed his robes and also swept away the hairpin on his head. In an instant, that head of deep blue long hair scattered in the night sky like the waves of Li’er Kingdom’s nighttime sea. His robes also became voluminous with the wind, like clouds glimpsed from outside the windows of celestial sea pavilions. This person rode the heavenly wind, his appearance gradually transforming into that of an unfamiliar, devastatingly beautiful youth.